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I've been working on my cosmetics range for a few years now. When I was studying Product Design at the Glasgow School of Art, I became allergic to a few of the skincare ingredients that I was using, and I was just told to simply avoid the ingredients that I couldn't use.

It should have been so simple, but it eventually turned into a three or four-year problem, where I was really struggling to identify the ingredients that I was allergic and sensitive to. A lot of the labels that you look at detailing cosmetic ingredients, need to be listed in a certain way, known as the International Naming System, so that everybody understands but, the result is that no one really understands what something like tocopherol is, it's vitamin E, but the average consumer doesn't necessarily realise that.

So just having to pick up every bottle, look through every ingredient, and do all the research on the side, made me realise it was becoming really difficult to avoid the ingredients that I was sensitive to, and I never ended up finding a suitable product that worked for me, and as a product designer, I started thinking that this should be a much simpler process. We're living in the 21st century, we have all this technology around us and we're still having to go to every single shop, look at every single ingredient label, just to make sure that I'm buying what I need.

I thought about the idea for a while, but I guess starting a business is a really nerve wracking thing. I tend to write my ideas down, so I just wrote it on a little sticky note and put it up on my bedroom wall and it kind of sat there for about a year or two, just marinating. I would look at it every time I got up in the morning. Eventually I guess, just having it up there, I felt like, I either do this now or someone else probably will, and that sort of kick started things.

At that point I'd graduated from Product Design - I did a double Masters where I was doing Management and Design at Glasgow University and the School of Art. While I was doing the Masters I was sort of developing the idea on the side a bit more but it was only once I'd graduated that I started working on it full time. I incorporated the company in January last year, and that's when things got real. I started working on it full time and initially it was just the same as being a product designer, in that, I’m trying to design a product and a service that people want and that people need.

A lot of my work during the first eight or nine months was about making sure that people wanted this, by interviewing loads of people. I guess initially, the reason I stuck that post-it note on the wall and it just sat there for a while, was because I didn't know if other people had this problem as well. But the more people I spoke to, the more I realised that allergies are actually a huge problem - it's the most chronic disease in Europe. More than 371 million people will be affected by 2025. It's such a huge problem and skincare companies aren't really dealing with it at the moment.

They have embraced for a long time, this mass produced approach that tries to make us all into people who should be treated the same. Whereas we're not. We're more than just 'oily, dry and normal'. The places we live in make a difference, our ethnic origins make a difference, the pollution levels in our areas, everything makes a difference. I guess I was also a bit fed up of this approach that treated us all the same and tried to convince us that this one, mass produced product was amazing for everybody.

The beauty of creating a customisation service that uses specific data about an individual to customise a product for them, is that, our products can be for anyone. It uses algorithms to make the skincare to be a lot more inclusive regardless of your gender, or your ethnic origins, or your skin type and skin tone, or your allergies. I guess what makes us different is that we don't characterise our consumers into specific personas - men or women or whatever else those personas might be. We're just basing it on you and on what you tell us. So when a person comes to buy a product they'll go through an online customisation process where they can enter data about their allergies, if they have any, their lifestyle, their skin goals. And our algorithm uses that data to formulate a bespoke product just for them. It's holistic and inclusive.

I’ve enjoyed this process. It's been rough, it's been a rollercoaster. I'm approaching about a year and a half since I started this, and the support in Scotland has been great, we've won a few competitions and we've got some funding and we now have over 500 people on our wait list who are waiting to buy the product, so it's a really exciting time. So yeah, it's just trying to keep positive and keep looking and moving forward.

Atypical’s first products will be available for pre-order on Kickstarter. The crowdfunding campaign starts 11 March 2020 and runs through to 11 April 2020. For more information click here.